Surviving: A Love Story
by GealicEvaPilot
Summary: An after story for EOE, where Shinji and Asuka try and make a place for themselves in a post-third-impact world. Totally shippy and for the most part happy.
1. Chapter 1

Day: One

Shinji Ikari hurriedly tried to make his way through what had been NERV's geofront. Why did I have to be her? Of all people why was he stuck alive with her. He was supposed to be alive and alone. It was his punishment for everything he had done, everyone else was supposed to be happy and together finally.. so after 'that' they had just sort of sat there in pained silence.. until Asuka had said something.. of course she was the one to say something, he certainly couldn't.

She told him to go get her a medical kit, since he wasn't as injured.. but everything hurt.. why did he jump at that.. it was true though, he hurt like hell all over but she hadn't moved at all yet, maybe she couldn't. He had wanted her back, but.. Asuka really deserved to be happy after everything he had done to her..

After awhile he found what had been an infirmary. He opened the door slowly.. he still wasn't a given that they were alone, for now at least he really didn't want to die. No one was there.. no LCL, so one had been there either.. The medical kit was retrieved easily.. he really didn't want to return just with this, they're had to be more he could get.

Asuka could keep hating him forever, but he did want to get her something. After a little more searching around he found a Red uniform jacket, like Misato used to wear Asuka had always liked red.. she probably wasn't going to accept this.. a deep sigh.. dead quiet.. no one anywhere, just the hum of generators in every direction.

Okay, medicine down, what else could get find? Even abandoned and lifeless he wasn't too uncomfortable here. He had been here so often that he knew his way around pretty well. How did Misato stay lost all the time?

Misato. He missed her already, he never got to actually say goodbye. Just like when he had run, only now there wasn't any way to see her again. She had really cared about him, right to the end.

Everything hurt, and she couldn't remember crap about how she got into the beach to begin with.. Did he drag her here from unit 2? Not even Shinji would drag her someplace and try to strangle her.. asshole! For once she wanted to hear him say sorry, for once he needed to. how did she get bandaged up anyway? What the hell happened? She remembered fighting, and pain and rage and then, nothing.. damn!

"I'm sorry mama, I don't want to die yet.." she murmurs out, trying desperately to pull herself up.. her eye must be bandaged closed because her vision was crap. He was going to come back right? They had both done enough they must be regretting to each other over the past few weeks.. or months, but he wasn't going to leave her alone in this condition.. right? Shinji was going to come back with the stuff. Right?

The redhead manages to pull herself into a sitting position, to stare out over the ocean. Bleak and red and depressing.. No one has to tell her she just knows everyone else is dead.. she has been left here, with no angels left to fight and no eva to pilot, and most depressingly dependent on Shinji to go get her medical equipment and supplies. He was probably gonna have to carry her.

A wave washes in Miato's cross pendant, or she would assume it was… she grabs it.. lousy as she was the woman had been there for her, so she wasn't just gonna leave the thing here, not that she wanted it either. She just didn't want to leave it.

They were the last two people here, and over the last few weeks they had gotten to the point of hating each other, that was so. Damn wrong, she had never even wanted to hate him. She doesn't really want to forgive Shinji.. and she doesn't know if she can.. but here they were..

She can hear footsteps approaching, took him long enough, but he did actually come back for her.. even after all that, had she really been all that worried? He didn't hate her did he?

_ .

Shinji walked up carrying a filing cabinet drawer filled with whatever useful things he could think to grab: the medical kit, a pair of jackets and some food he got out of a vending machine, etc. there was no way to know how long it was since the last time either of them had eaten.

"Took you long enough, strangle freak!" came Asuka's voice…strained and angry.. but not nearly as cold as it had been not too long earlier.. she was glaring at him still.. so he averted his eyes and set down the drawer.

"Sorry.." there was a long pause. "I uh just thought you might uh be a little hungry.. so I picked up some food.. and stuff…" he stammered out trying hard not to look the redhead in the eyes..

All he heard in response was a groan, and a thump, as Asuka dropped back to laying down on the beach.. well he didn't really expect much.. had they ever really been friends or anything? He had thought so for awhile, but… not now.. not after all that…

"I got candy bars and soda.. not that it matters…" Shinji trailed off and sighed deeply taking a seat next to Asuka.. a moment of rummaging and he took out the medical kit.. and set it down, and they were once again in an uncomfortable silence.

"I'm sorry Asuka.. I'm really sorry for everything. I'm sorry even though it doesn't mean anything..." Shinji said at last, looking down and starring at the ground.. he had never wanted any of this.. he just.. he just wanted.. he wasn't even sure what he wanted.. but not this, he works up the courage to look over at Asuka.. she had always been the most like him, and she had always seemed have an opinion of him.. so..

"Okay. This is stupid, we're stuck here for now, so I have a few rules for this! One, we forget about when we first got to the beach. Two, you don't do anything perverted, three stop sulking like you were the only one who lost something! And four you take this damn thing!" the redhead threw the cross pendant at Shinji, and pulled herself back up. "You got that!?"

"Okay.. I can agree to all that.. I'm really sorry for before..i'll do what I can.." he replied, after a moment.. picking up the pendant.. it was Misato's thing… and well Asuka demanding things.. that was actually kinda comforting.. like how things were.

"Good, now feed me! I had to be the one to fight, so I'm beat up." Asuka replies sounding a little less angry.. and a bit like they were she used to sound, when she talked to him..

"what!?" wait did she really want him to feed her something.. well her right arm was totally bandaged up..

"You heard me Baka Shinji, I'm hurt feed me something!"

end


	2. Chapter 2

Shinji sighed, their.. their meal, with the way the sky looked there was no way to tell what time it was, was actually pretty filling. Comfort food. Maybe that was why Misato had always eaten this stuff..

He looked over at Asuka.. after talking for a little bit they had lapsed back into silence for most of the eating.. she was sitting up now.. that was encouraging. Between the two of them, she had always been the stronger one.. and now she was bandaged up… was he even strong enough to try and carry her?

"Asuka…. So…now what? We make some kind of plan right?" he looked over at her, she was fumbling around with a package of pain killers from the medical kit.. quickly she washed them down with a soda, and winced.. that really wasn't a good sign..

"Plan to do what!? Everyone everything is gone. If you haven't noticed we're camped out on a beach next to a fucked up red ocean!" Asuka replies frustrated and tosses Shinji a package of pain killers for himself..

"We need a plan to do something!" Shinji replied, before taking the pills himself.. everything did hurt and bad.. They couldn't just sit here doing nothing, for ever.. they can't survive all of that and die sitting on the beach..

Asuka groaned audibly and frowned.. Shinji starred at her for a moment.. it seemed like she was weighing options.. which hopefully didn't mean they were going to split up, he really didn't like the idea of being alone right now.. and really he didn't want to leave her anywhere alone.

"fine, how about we plan to go someplace to sleep? I don't want to stare out at the verdammt ocean much longer.." she ended up replying.. that seemed fine with him.. it didn't really matter what the actual time was.. and he was also really tired.. but Misato's place, which they had keys too, was a long ways off..

There wouldn't be any trains running and neither of them could drive.. so they would have to walk. That leaves going back to the geofront, and finding someplace to sleep there..

"Well I'm sure we could find someplace to rest back at NERV.. and they have warm showers.." Shinji sighed.. he stood up, slipping the jacket he had gotten on he knew he needed to help Asuka up.

"fine! Just we're sleeping in separate rooms, The redhead pulled herself up only to falter and for Shinji to catch her.. that was close.

Don't get cocky because I might need you're help now. It won't last." Asuka says annoyed.. as they start to walk off. He didn't like this though.. he really doesn't like the idea of Asuka needing to rely on him, he wanted her to be back to normal..

"Fine, Asuka.. let's just get out of here.."

Day: 2

Asuka woke up feeling much better actually, the full body pain wasn't gone but it was much more tolerable. It had hurt so bad yesterday.. she didn't like how helpless it had made her.. Today she could stand up and walk on her own fine.. no need to make herself indebted to Shinji. That wasn't a plan she liked at all.

She had ended up sleeping in what was left of her plugsuit, torn and ripped and without an eva to pilot completely useless, she wanted a change of clothes, she wanted a hot meal. She wanted to scream. She had lived but for what? To spend the rest of her life, living in the ruins of a city she had been defending? No, as much as she didn't like it, Shinji was right they needed a plan to do something. Something far away..

A sigh… she needed a shower. The redhead grabbed jacket and left the office where she had slept to go find the pilot's locker room. As she walked she started to try and remove the bandages from her arm.. there wasn't any blood. In fact there didn't really even seem to be a wound anymore. Just a long straight scar down her arm, and sadly she still couldn't see out her eye even with the bandage off.

The shower felt amazing. Cold and Refreshing and able to momentarily wash her worry to the back of her mind. That was until she got out and looked at herself straight in the mirror. On reflex she let out a shout. It wasn't just her arm she had scars around her neck, the bases of her arms, and down her stomach. It took a second but the injuries were clear. Every place unit 2 had ever been hurt, she now had an injury.. but how the hell did that even work? It didn't make any sense!

Shinji had gotten up early, more or less as a reflex. He had always gotten up early to fix breakfast and lunch, so there wasn't a reason to stop.. only there wasn't anything laying around that he could really make a breakfast out of. There should be coffee in the break room, maybe Asuka would like to have some. He had ended up helping her get to a room to sleep… was she okay today?

It was weird how much they had been here, but finding things now was so hard. Maybe it was just the atmosphere? It was just the two of them, and they had never been looking for stuff like that before.

It took a little bit of time but eventually he found said break room and coffee to make. He really had been thinking about what he wanted to do since yesterday.. he said that had needed a plan, but Asuka had been right., they needed to figure out what they wanted to plan. Coming out of third impact alive meant getting an actual 2nd chance to live. He had admitted that he wanted to live, he now needed to figure out how.. Asuka being here meant she must have wanted the same thing right?

He didn't want to stay in Tokyo 3, he had come here because his father had told him to. That didn't matter anymore. He had decided to stay for lots and lots of reasons.. none of them exited anymore. Nothing was holding him here.. and there were plenty of places that would be nice to see.. but the question became how to actually get there.. well he wasn't in this alone. He needed to ask Asuka about it anyway. It was best if they did stick together.

Coffee was poured into paper cups.. a sigh.. and then he heard the scream from down the corridor. Reflexively he ran out, Asuka must have gotten hurt or something not good.. and he wasn't just going to let that happen. Quickly he had arrived at the locker room door..

"Asuka are you okay!?" he shouted out, and luckily before he opened the door. He got a reply.

"You open the door and you're dead!" a momentary pause, he was still "okay close your eyes and stay exactly where you are!" Shinji sighed and obeyed closing his eyes..

"uh okay.. I was uh just making sure you were okay.. Asuka.. I'm not really sure what.." he could hear the door open..

"keep them closed if you know what's good for you.." after a moment.. he felt hands lifting up his shirt. Okay? What was she doing? What was going on? Before they put his shirt back down. The door opened and then closed.

"Okay. You can open now. You seem to have them too, you know. " Asuka's voice replied through the door. Uh.. what just happened? He was really, really confused.. why did she mean? He had what? Shinji sighed.. he was never going to find out was he? Yeah that figured. A small smile crept over the boy's face, this was more or less how it used to be between them right? Things were getting better.

Off in the distance there was a small echo.. it wasn't anything he could really make out, but there was something. A voice? Wait a voice!? Someone else was here! They really weren't completely alone!? For the first time in forever excitement, came over him.


End file.
